Majority of world's countries miss Copenhagen Accord deadline

The bulk of the world's nations ignored a January 31 deadline to submit action plans to combat climate change under the terms of the Copenhagen Accord (pdf). But the majority of the world's greenhouse gas emissions will be affected by commitments that were submitted to the United Nations in recent days, in keeping with the last-minute, non-binding accord hammered out in December.

It also remains unclear what might happen with funding promised at Copenhagen by developed countries to help developing countries combat climate change—some $30 billion to be allocated by 2013 and $100 billion a year from 2020.

Nevertheless, "following a month of uncertainty, it is now clear that the Copenhagen Accord will support the world in moving forward to meaningful action on climate change," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Resources Institute's climate and energy program, in a prepared statement. But "the commitments are far below what is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

David Biello

David Biello is a contributing editor at Scientific American. He has been reporting on the environment and energy since 1999.

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